Lemon Mousse (Vegan, Gluten Free)

I can only describe this lemon mousse as a lemon cloud. Make a batch of my lemon curd and gently fold it through whipped aquafaba until you have a pale, impossibly light dessert with bright lemon flavor. Spoon it into dessert bowls and you have a wonderful lemon mousse or Citron Fromage as my mother called it. Sometimes I scoop it into dessert bowls and pop them in the freezer before dinner. After dinner you will have a luscious lemony semifreddo to offer your guests.

Lemon Mousse (Vegan, Gluten Free)

When we moved to the dilapidated Victorian house we now call home, an expert arborist told me I should cut down all the trees in my yard save for one Sugar Maple. Like the Red Queen in Alice he ordered Off with their their heads! I demurred. A big mistake, he told me I was making a big mistake. You’ll never have a garden, he told me, too much shade.

Some are blinded by the sun others by the shade. That first year I stared longingly at the garden out my window, well it was a garden in my eyes only, to the rest of the world it appeared a graveled over parking lot housing 8 cars, a tractor, and a snow plow. We set ourselves to restoring the house we had bought. The Electric company refused to turn the electricity on because the wiring was so old none of them had ever seen its like. We tore out every mold eaten wall and water stained ceiling. Standing at the window, knee deep in crumbled plaster, I would stare into the yard cataloging the depths of shade: morning light hit in wide skating sheets through the center area, pillars of light pooled under the sugar maple at midday and the back garden was dappled like a cheetah in late afternoon.

Lemon Mousse (Vegan, Gluten Free)

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

-Margaret Atwood

Hostas seemed to be the resounding answer by those whose opinions I never asked. Everyone told me: You’ll never be able to grow your roses here.

My dad was the one who taught me a more important lesson.

Hanne, he would say, people say I have a green thumb, but there is no such thing as a green thumb. I pay attention that is what I do. I notice what works and what doesn’t.

That man could take an orchid plant that hadn’t bloomed in 10 years and have it bursting with buds within a month. People would bring him their worn out orchids and leave them swaddled on his door step like abandoned babies.

I spent that year raking up the thick layer of gravel that coated the yard and while I raked I payed attention, to the slopes of the garden, where rain fell and where it pooled, where fingers of sunlight stroked the ground.

Here is how I used to put myself to sleep at night. In my mind’s eye I would plant the garden, shrubs, vines and perrenials. I would switch through about five years of growth one year at a time and see the pattern that emerged. I would lay paths and build arbours and fall asleep to twining clematis and apple blossoms.

Every night I started the garden fresh with new patterns, moving hydrangeas and viburnum around the garden as one would plan a quilt. The garden that blooms now outside my window in a wild profusion of roses and honeysuckle, columbines and clematis truly sprang from my dreams.

Lemon mousse makes an elegant end to an evening whether eaten with friends in the garden on in your pjs in bed.

Course:
Dessert

Cuisine:
Danish

Servings: 4people

Ingredients

Lemon Curd

3/4cuplemon juicefresh

1tbsplemon zest

12 ouncessilken tofu

1/2 cupcoconut milkfrom a can, well stirred

1/2cupwater

1 1/4 cupgranulated sugar

3 1/2tbspcornstarch

1pinchsalt

turmeric optionaor yellow food coloringl

1/3cuppistachioschopped , for garnish

1/4cuppesticide free rose petals optional for garnish

Aquafaba Whip

1/2cupaquafaba* from chickpeas or white beans

1/4tspcream of tartar mounded

1tspvanilla extract

3/4cupgranulated sugar

Instructions

Lemon Curd

This recipe will make more curd than you need. Use the left over curd on ice cream, with waffles and pancakes, on fresh fruit, on oatmeal etcetera. You get my drift there are few things it isn't wonderful on. If you really love someone give them a tiny glass jar of it, tied with a ribbon and a note.

Pour the contents of the blender into a medium sized pot and place on stove over medium heat.

Stir your curd continually and thoroughly with a flexible spatula until small bubbles begin to form on the edges of the pot. Continue stirring until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and pour into a heat safe container. I use a glass jar. To avoid a film from forming on the top of the curd press heat safe plastic wrap onto the surface of the curd.

The curd will keep in the fridge for about 1 1/2 weeks. The curd must be completely cooled before you use it for the lemon mousse.

Aquafaba whip

Chill your dessert glasses or bowls.

Place aquafaba and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon attachment. Turn the mixer on medium for a minute until the liquid is foamy and not so sloshy.

Now turn the speed up as high as it will go and whip for as long as it takes till you get stiff peaks. (7-12 minutes). Add the vanilla extract. Whip one minute.

Slowly add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time while still whipping. Make sure the sugar is completely incorporated and there you have a wonderfully glossy marshmallow-like cream. After the last of the sugar is added whip about two more minutes or until you have stiff peaks.

Lemon Mousse

Scoop out 1/2 cup of the lemon curd to use in the mousse and place the rest in a covered jar in the refrigerator.

Gently stir the lemon curd through the aquafaba whip using a folding motion with a rubber spatula. When it is incorporated stop stirring or you will deflate to mousse. Too little folding is better than too much.

Scoop your mousse into waiting chilled dessert bowls or glasses. If not eating right away then place into the fridge for up to an hour or in the freezer for an hour if you want a semifreddo like consistency.

Funny my husband said I should include photos of the garden but I told him no one would be interested. I will post some photos of the garden then. Fun I get to avoid chores and go out and photograph. Thank you!!!

“In an island of bitter lemons / Where the moon’s cool fevers burn / From the dark globes of the fruit…” – Larry Durrell, Bitter Lemons (1957). When I visit that island of bitter lemons this summer I will bring the book – which you gave me – and find his house and maybe some lemons along the way. Please post a pair of before & after photos of the garden. When I look at pictures of what the old backyard used to look like – little more than a parking lot of compacted, oil-stained gravel plus those redeeming trees – I’m wowed every time at what you’ve wrought with your imagination and years of gritty physical labor. A lush oasis blooming in the dessert is no less astonishing.

And…you made me cry, good tears. Your support and remembrance combines, twines and supports my own memories, one could not exist without the other. Yes I do plan to have a garden section of the blog for musing and photos. When I was young I could read a whole Lawrence Durrell book in a sitting, greedily. In those days I could eat a jar of pickles and not feel the effect. Now that I’m older I can only read him in tiny sips like brandy. The beauty overwhelms me. My email went kaput btw and Hanaan switched me to another. I don’t know when it got wonky in the last 2 days.

Didn’t mean to make you cry, but it’s true that sometimes tears are good tears even if they are also awful ones at the same time. I wrote “an oasis blooming in the dessert is no less astonishing.” I meant “in the DESERT is no MORE astonishing.” I need an editor. But mixing up DESSERT and DESERT maybe makes an odd kind of sense in the context of a FOOD blog which often gets its inspiration from the NEAR EAST.

Hello! I’m really excited to make this mousse for a dinner party. The guest list got a little out of hand and I’m planning on serving it to 10 guests. Do you think I should make a double batch of lemon curd or would 1.5 do?

I’m also not sure on whether to make the aquafaba whip in two batches in the food processor or not.

I’d very much appreciate any advice you can give me, I’m a bit nervous because I’m cooking for omnivores and I want my vegan menu to wow them!

Catherine, Hi, I think your omni friends will be delighted with your kitchen alchemy. I understand your nervousness! I feel the same way when cooking for people who aren’t vegan, a certain kind of pressure for sure.
I would definitely whip in two batches.
1.5 will do I believe. Just have extra un-whipped aquafaba around so you can whip up a little extra to”stretch” the curd to make the lemon mousse fit all ten bowls, or cup, martini glasses…
Since I don’t know your size container better safe then sorry.
Please tag me on Instagram so I can see the feast you prepare. Good luck. Your friends are so lucky!